José Luis Martí awarded Cuéllar in Burgos. The Sporting coach kept the player from Mérida in the eleven despite recovering Mariño and the team, as in the two previous days, ended up adding. The player from Vigo had not followed a league game from the bench for more than a year (since the visit to Castellón last season) and saw how the duel at El Plantío left a very good hand from Cuéllar among the images of him. It was to save a particularly valued tie in the rojiblanco locker room as the team’s dynamics were being. If the coach complies with his words prior to the match, the chosen one in Burgos will finish the season under the sticks.
Cuéllar complied in Burgos with the endorsement that has led Martí to turn around what was his first choice when he arrived in Gijón. If Diego Mariño stayed in goal when the Spaniard took charge of the team, Cuéllar has been able to make the most of his teammate’s absence due to injury. The team had just added in the two games with the player from Mérida –a draw against Leganés and a victory against Cartagena– and the rule was confirmed in the third match. Equal in Burgos and one more point away from the relegation zone. The balance now tips the other way.
The role of the two Sporting goalkeepers, both with more than proven track records in the category, turns around and fuels a debate that no one expected a few months ago. Mariño was the fixed and Cuéllar, the alternative. He couldn’t do it in the Cup, due to injury, and he has done it in the League with force. Everything, while a third in discord is vindicated in Cyprus. Christian Joel, whom Sporting planned to rescue from his loan at AEK Larnaca in January since he did not have minutes, is now the starting goalkeeper in both the League and the Cup.
It is the turn of the Cuban goalkeeper to return in June and Sporting will then find themselves with three goalkeepers, since both Cuéllar and Mariño have one more year on their contract. In the case of the player from Vigo, the club has been leaving the door open to listen to offers during the last few years. It is not surprising that he repeats the maneuver again. If in previous years there was a firm interest from Espanyol, among others, we will have to see how the next one develops, which aims to return to being hot around the goal.
Pending talk with the coach
Cuéllar and Diego Mariño found out about the coach’s decision about which of the two would start in Burgos in the talk prior to the match. José Luis Martí decided to wait until the last minute to opt for one or the other, specifically, until the night before the match. The coach, who revealed this detail in the press conference after the match in El Plantío, still has a pending conversation with both. The coach’s intention is to talk throughout the week with his players. “The normal thing is that whoever plays on Sunday has continuity for the rest of the season. It would be the most logical”, commented the Balearic in the previous one. Ahead, eight days with a duel as significant as the derby. Mariño, who used to wear the bracelet on the pitch, has given it up in favor of Babin.
